Gravity
on Different PlanetsComparison
of different planets' gravity on the surface, some with more
gravity than the Earth and some with less gravity than the Earth:

One
of the first things you notice when you arrive on a planet is the
gravity. It seems you weigh more or less
depending on how much gravity there is. On some planets you can
leap about because the gravity is weak, whereas on some you need
to find a comfy chair quite soon because the gravity is so strong.

Of
course you should read the travel brochure
before going, and give it a try in the simulator, so you have a
good idea what to expect.

These
figures have been adjusted with Earth=1 so as to give a
comparison, for example Lunar gravity is one sixth of that of
Earth, etc.

The
gravity on the surface of a planet is dependent on various things:
How heavy the planet is (the heavier the planet, the more mass it has,
the more gravity it has). Also, how small it is. A small dense
planet can have a surprisingly high gravity at the surface. In
comparison, a planet of the same mass as the Earth, but made of
expanded polystyrene, would be much bigger and have a much lower
gravity on the surface. Also see list of
densities

You
can work out the gravity of a planet by using the formula g = G *
M / R2 where G is the Universal Gravitational Constant
6.67 x 10-11 and M is the mass of the planet in Kg and
R is the radius of the planet in metres. If you do this for the
Earth you get 6.67 x 10-11 x 5.972 x 1024 /
( 6378 x 103 )2 = 9.79 (not far off the 9.81
you see in physics books). The equation produces results measured
in Newtons per Kilogramme, so if you want to get figures relative
to the Earth gravity like in the table, you can divide the result
by 9.81. Try this for the Moon and you get 6.67 x 10-11
x 7.35 x 1022 / ( 1738 x 103 )2
= 1.62 , divided by 9.81 = 0.165 = about one-sixth of the gravity
of the Earth as expected. You can see how useful scientific
calculators and exponential notation are!

Gravity
figures for planets, such as 9.81 for the Earth, are measured in
metres per second per second. 9.81 m/s/s or 9.81 ms-2
is the rate at which a falling object would accelerate. Or to put
it another way, a falling object would be travelling 9.81 metres
per second faster for every second it continued to fall. In
practice, falling objects on the Earth tend to reach their
terminal-velocity because of air friction. The figures in the
chart have been adjusted by dividing them by 9.81 to give figures
which compare with the Earth's gravity =1 which folks are
familiar with.

Other
equations which are some help in working out things to do with
planets are: The volume of a sphere V = 4/3 x PI x R3
(planets are assumed to be spherical), and density = mass /
volume .

Yes,
you're welcome to use this page for your educational project, but
please include the fact that it's available at www.zyra.org.uk/gravities.htm

Notes:

*
Planet : The term used loosely, as there are plenty of places you
can land on which have some approximation to the idea that you're
on a planet. Generally if they are round and have a surface (or
somewhere a surface might be), then they get included in lists
like this where the idea of "Gravity on the Surface"
has some meaning. Some people have even funnier ideas about
"what makes something a planet?" - see the Pluto Problem

*1
: Planets (and other things) which have no actual solid surface
to land on. Hotels in Airships floating
about in the atmosphere still have carpets with apparent "gravity
on the surface". You can call them submarines or ships if
you like, there's still an apparent gravity as if you're "ON"
a planet. For convenience, the "surface" is often
assumed to be somewhere at about the height (altitude) where the
atmospheric pressure is similar to that of the Earth.

*2
: If you live on a planet where the gravity is unreasonably high
(such as the Earth) then it may seem a bit "depressing".
Solutions to relieve the problem temporarily include getting a trampoline (where the
energy gained in falling is converted back into kinetic energy
upwards), acquiring a medium of appropriate density such as that
in items at Pool Center, and going
in for activities such as skydiving (see activity sports).

I
have heard that there is a brilliant hands-on science-museum
style demonstration of gravity on different planets, where cans
of baked beans are on show with simulated gravities as per
different planets. You can lift them and feel what the gravity is
like, and feel for yourself a gravity comparison using an
everyday object, a can of baked beans!

How
High Can You Jump on Other Planets?

To
work this out, you first need to know how high you can jump on
Earth, but you have to calibrate this by a technique which is
different from that used in the traditional sport of High Jump.
The question is not "How high a bar can you jump over?"
but "How high would a ceiling have to be so that you could
jump and not quite hit your head on the ceiling?". To test
this without hurting your head on any low ceilings and without
leaving any dints in polystyrene ceiling tiles, an adequate
measure can be found by using a piece of string between two
measuring poles. Find the maximum height you can nut, and then
subtract your own height. For example, if you're 5ft 6in tall and
you can jump so your head reaches a height of 6ft 6in, then you
can jump 1ft. Then, to work out how far you could jump on a
different planet with different gravity, you divide that by the
gravity of the planet. On a planet that's got half the gravity of
the Earth, you could jump twice as high, ie 2ft.

If
the Gravity is very weak, can you jump off the Planet?

Tourists
visiting all-inclusive resorts on Ceres, for example, might be
concerned that a gravity of less than one twentieth that of the
Earth, could mean that there's a danger of jumping "off"
the planet?! However, to jump off a planet (in one go) requires
achieving the Escape Velocity. Even for
a low gravity minor planet such as Ceres the escape velocity is
hundreds of MPH. Escape velocity is a function of the gravity
well, not the force of gravity at the surface. It's more
difficult to escape from Saturn than from Earth, because in
contrast to the g-force at the "surface", the
gravitational well of Saturn is much deeper.